A Study On The Methods Of English Movie Title Translation

The movie, a special kind of art, functions not only in education and entertainment but also in commerce. Compared with other kinds of literature works, movies function more efficiently in the broadcasting of information and spreading of culture as they have a much wider scope of receivers and usually it takes less time for people to learn something through movies rather than through novels. Movie is a popular art with both artistic and commercial values, is one of the most influential mass media with large quantities of English movies being introduced into China. The movie title, as an important part of the movie, is of informative, expressive, aesthetic and vocative functions and its translation is a challenging job. Proceeding from the features and functions of the movie title, this thesis analyzes the main translation methods and strategies applied in English movie title translation. The merits and limitations of each method are discussed. This thesis intends to argue that English movie title translation should be under the basic principle of fulfilling the specific functions of the movie title through adopting translation methods properly.This paper begins from analyzing the profile of English movie titles. It is pointed out that the ultimate purpose of movie title translation is to induce the audience to see the movie. But unlike commercial advertisement, the movie title is not only a commercial product, but a spiritual product as well. In order to achieve the purpose, the title not only has to provide necessary information about the movie to the audience but to entertain the audience and attract the audience. Only when the audience have been entertained and attracted by the title will they be persuaded to go to the cinema. That is to say, a translator should try to achieve the basic functions in target translation. Next, this author introduces two supporting theories influencing English movie title translation and analyzes their application: skopos theory (Skopostheorie) and reception aesthetics theory. Then this author gives a short browsing of the status quo of English movie title translation in China.In the latter part of the thesis, under the guidance of the Skopostheorie and reception aesthetics theory, a practical study of the examples of the translation of English movie titles is conducted. Several translation methods are generalized with rich examples. Then, a trial proposal of a tentative model of translation methods is brought out.